In this day and age, the content on your website matters just as much as the good or service you’re offering. It is for this reason why one of the first things any digital marketing agency will do when onboarding you as a new client is conduct a content audit.
The purpose of the audit is to take a deep dive into every page of your website and determine the efficacy of the content. The findings are used to develop a content plan that may involve building on the work that was already done or re-optimizing the existing content to improve engagement.
What these audits often expose is an unconvincing attempt at organic SEO by either the business owner or a former digital marketing agency. Rather than harp on everything you may be doing wrong, we’d like to highlight the top four common web content mistakes and inform you on how to avoid them.
Overly Technical Jargon
Business owners who do their own digital marketing are often the culprits of using overly technical jargon, but they commonly do so subconsciously. As someone deeply invested in your field of work, it is natural for you to be aware of and regularly use the jargon tossed around by others in the business. When you go to write a webpage or a blog, you’ll naturally implement such terms in your content.
Many business owners mistakenly see this as a way to show consumers that they are knowledgeable on the subject matter, and as necessary as that may be, it can quickly backfire. Those seeking your service are most likely not experts in the field (otherwise they wouldn’t need you). To appeal to these people, you must make the content as digestible as possible as those who find it difficult to comprehend your site’s content will likely close your tab and browse your competitor’s site instead.
Improper Use of Testimonials
A BrightLocal survey revealed that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. With that said, having online reviews on your site is crucial, but the way you present them is just as important. For most, adding a “Testimonials” page is the go-to solution, but it’s not as effective as you may believe.
The online reviews that people trust are those made through sites like Google My Business, Yelp, and Avvo. Therefore, your unreferenced testimonials page listing reviews from Mark S. and Kasey B. do little to build trust with potential clients. Instead, create location pages for targeted areas and highlight a correlating review from someone in the area.
By doing this and linking the testimonial to its source, your testimonials gain validity, and your site also starts ranking for areas outside of your immediate location.
Failing to Localize Content
While the use of location pages and testimonials are ideal for boosting relevance in your field, having content catered to your local area is just as essential. For example, if your business is a pool cleaning service in South Florida, it is highly unlikely that potential clients would want to know about how to prep their pools during a harsh winter (for obvious reasons). Instead, content should be catered to issues that actually affect the people of the area like how to avoid pool flooding during hurricane season.
The best way to determine what content to produce is to conduct topic research and find out what people in the local area are talking about and what questions they have. By joining the conversation and answering their questions through your content, you establish yourself as an authority on the topic and potentially attract new leads.
No Call to Actions
Having a tastefully designed website with engaging graphics and aesthetically pleasing animations means little to nothing if browsers aren’t prompted to take action. When putting together your site, keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to convert browsers into consumers and this is best achieved through the use of call to actions or CTAs. A CTA is exactly what it sounds like; it prompts the browser to take a desired action.
You’ve gotten them to the page, now what do you want to happen next? Maybe you want them to visit your store/office, or you want them to view your products to make an online purchase; whatever the end goal is, make it clear. You can do so through the implementation of buttons, hyperlinks, and contact forms to ensure that you do not lose out on a conversion simply because the browser didn’t know what to do next.
For example, “Market My Market is a full-service digital marketing agency with an elite team of writers dedicated to making sure that your onsite content fulfills its purpose. Contact us today for a free consultation with a digital marketing expert who can explain your full range of options for onsite content optimization.”
That was our CTA. Call us today so that we can help you out with yours.